NYC - tips with teens

[Blingstar]

Where would you stay - Manhattan or Brooklyn? Any reasonable accommodation suggestions. Restaurants worth visiting.

And what would be your must sees with early teens?

We stayed at 9/11 in a hotel that overlooked the memorial pools. Its called club Quarters. 5 minutes to multiple subway stations, a great diner called Georges near by. 10 minutes to the Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty and you can walk to the Brooklyn Bridge. I would stay again in a minute. Hotel had free tea and coffee, free laundry and the rooms come with fridge, microwave and coffee maker.

My teens loved the statue of liberty and particularly the Crown, Intrepid, a day trip to Philly, top of the rock and a pedicab tour of central park.

Its a full on holiday and the only thing id change is factoring in a little more down time for the DC. It was a pretty exhausting week and on reflection, I shouldnt have planned so much.

It depends on your budget. If your budget allows you to stay on Manhatten, then do that. However, Jersey City is a good place to stay, and prices are a little lower. We stayed there as we are a family of 5, as there was a better choice of hotels with suites for 5. It's very quick and easy to reach Manhattan on the PATH train, and it's also cheaper to eat out in the evening. We found a couple of great little restaurants that were lovely, and much cheaper than on Manhattan.

Must sees - The crown of the Statue of Liberty is great, my kids also loved the Staten Island Ferry (mostly as they are Spiderman fans and a scene was set on there). If you only go up one tall building, make it Summit One - it was great, very interactive, my kids absolutely loved it. Good views, and very different from the other observation decks.

Ellis island, walk across the Brooklyn bridge during day and at night, sporting event if you can get tickets, time square, show on broadway, Central Park, Empire State Building,

Stay in Manhattan. We’ve taken our 2 many times as teens.

Last time we stayed in the NoMad area which was great.

Ours love all the touristy stuff - Empire State, Top of the Rock, WTC. They LOVE the 9/11 museum and we’ve done it several times. Also the Staten Island ferry and walk the Brooklyn Bridge. You can do great bike tours which I’d definitely recommend. We love the West village too as there are great restaurants and diners.

Take in a show, go to Grand Central, force them to do the cheesy stuff!

Thanks very much for all the tips.

Not mid town Manhattan that was popular back in the day it’s shit now half the shops on 5th ave are boarded up tramps everywhere and stinks of weed basically rough as arseholes

still love NY but that bits crap

@Myjobisanightmare thanks, where would you stay?

The last 6/7 times have been Brooklyn we spend a lot of time there but it does mean getting to uptown Manhattan for galleries Central Park etc takes a bit longer. Our last trip was February this year we stayed I think a Hilton across the road from the Staten Island Ferry it worked fine for going in either direction you can’t fault their public transport

talking of public transport a few years ago we discovered the NY ferry it was the same cost as a subway ride but was more funny. They’ve put the price up but we’re happy to pay it’s a fun way of getting around

The Edge & One world trade were favourites for ours.

Walked Brooklyn bridge and the High Line

Fountains at Rockerfeller are fun

Clipper ship cruise where they got to help with hoisting the sails and got great pics with Statue of Liberty and Skyline. Did that in the day then a harbour lights cruise too

Definitely do 9/11 museum - ours spent hours there

Picnic in Central Park for chill out time

$1 pizza & food cart hot dogs & smoothies - ask price at food carts before ordering; hardly any advertise them!

Do RiseNY at the end of the trip, as they will recognise everything!

We much preferred Dumbo & Brooklyn to Manhattan

Manhattan was weed everywhere and homeless, where Brooklyn felt more upmarket and safe

Teen enjoyed High Line, The Edge, dinner at Cecconi’s in Dumbo by the water at sunset, walking back over Brooklyn Bridge at night, Guggenheim, 9/11, NYC ferry (not free Staten Island one), and the shopping!

Did this last year for a long weekend on our way back from Cali. Stayed at the Motto hotel in Chelsea. Kids loved it as the breakfast/bar area was very open and the people watching was ace.

They loved the high line, a bit of shopping, 9/11 memorial, and sitting in the park opposite the statue of Lib.

We walked about 18km a day though which was fine, we stopped regularly for smoothie which you can get everywhere.

Food wise they enjoyed the Korean BBQ and right near where the hotel was a indoor food market with a fabulous Italian restaurant in it.

NY was a winner with our teens

New Yorker here. I'd stay in Manhattan just for the better proximity to the things you'll want to see. Yes to the 9/11 museum. Also, Radio City Music Hall is an art deco masterpiece and right by Rockefeller Center. They offer a fab backstage tour that shows you everything behind the scenes. You even get to chat with a Rockette.

https://www.msg.com/guided-tours/radio-city-music-hall

Try to get a meal at Union Square Cafe. It's lovely, great food and service and a very nice location by Union Square Park. Book ahead. It may be easier to get seated at lunch vs diner.

https://www.unionsquarecafe.com/

Enjoy!

Wow. Thanks everyone for the tips. Easy to build an itinerary from this information.

Dd and I stayed by Central Park at the top of 5th.
I thought it was a great location.
We did a lot of walking and didn't make to the Statue of Liberty.
But dd wanted bookshops, clothes shops, museums and a trip to the other end of 5th Ave for a Taylor Swift thing.
Central Park was good to eat bagels in.
She enjoyed the Empire State Building.
I'm glad we did a Broadway show but not sure I'd bother again.

There was less weed than I'm used to in our US city but because it is legal in so much of the USA I think I'm just used to it now.
I didn't think that there were more homeless people than London or most other large cities in the USA.

@Blingstar, I've just thought of another thing to do that was a big hit with my teenagers. It's the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum. You get to tour the inside of an aircraft carrier and submarine and view a space shuttle. It's really interesting to see what they're like inside.

https://www.intrepidmuseum.org/The-Intrepid-Experience/Exhibits

@MissConducUS thanks for your tips. I appreciate it. What do you think about a visit in February? Would it be miserably cold? I was planning for October but the flight and hotel has jumped in price.

@Blingstar It's not terribly cold in NYC in February. Last winter was milder than average. Here are the statistics:

https://weatherspark.com/m/23912/2/Average-Weather-in-February-in-New-York-City-New-York-United-States

Sorry, those are in F, not C.

You would need to pack warm clothes, but it's certainly doable.

We've taken our (now adult) DC to NY when they were teenagers a couple of times, usually for 3 or 4 days.

What worked for us is that we split the days into sessions and everyone got to choose 2 activities. Big hits were the High Line, MOMA, Top of the Rock. We also had chill out time in Central Park. The last time we went we stayed in Hells Kitchen.

Thank you. When I looked at them they were in C so it must convert by IP. Thanks @MissConducUS

Good to know. I suspected it might when the website preview showed "4 C to 7".

There will undoubtedly be shorter queues for museums, restaurants, etc. in February as well.

By the way, NY'ers have something of an undeserved reputation. We tend to be direct, not rude. And we love our British tourists because you speak English. Please tip according to local customs, even if you don't agree with the concept of tipping. Restaurant servers here "tip out" to the rest of the staff based on a percentage of their sales, so they can lose money by serving you if you don't tip.

The flagship sports stores on 5th avenue- Nike, Adidas, Nba. Footlocker etc- stores on a scale they hasn't seen before and I underestimated just how much they would like them.

Statue of Libery Crown was a highlight ' no more expensive than the $25 normal ticket but you need to plan and prebook.

Walking across Brooklyn Bridge and then a wander round and meal in China Town.

Cycling round the whole of central park with lots of meanders and stops.

The $1 pizzas.

I would say those were the stand out highlights for them.

The $1 pizzas.

A couple of people have mention the $1`pizza slices. I haven't seen those since the 1980s. They're $3 and up now.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/this-new-yorker-tracked-the-price-of-nyc-pizza-slices-for-eight-years-and-the-results-are-shocking-030223#:~:text=The%20results%20are%20in%3A%20according,sort%20of%20ranking%20by%20deliciousness.

Good point about tipping etiquette. I've just read that 20% is the norm. Do you do that in cash?

Here, I'd say 10% is usual in a restaurant, but everything is contactless so we just add it via the machine.